At some point—probably when someone coined the phrase “leveraging cross-functional synergy”—we quietly smothered “point of view.” We stopped having ideas and started having decks. We started “aligning.” We ran everything through committees, softened the edges, then ran it again. By the time it came out the other end, whatever it became had all the shock and awe of a Malibu Rum and Diet. All hail “inoffensive corporate.” It meant, as a group, we all agreed we hated it the least.

And here’s the kicker: We called it good.
It wasn’t.

“One thought” is not clarity—it’s oppression. It’s the death of style, curiosity, and soul. It’s the brand equivalent of stuffing your head in a feedback loop and confusing consensus for resonance. The truth is: Great creative has a clear point of view. And if that view point doesn’t risk making someone uncomfortable, it probably doesn’t matter much. At Ostrom Creative, we like risk. We like tension. We believe that clarity is something you fight for—not something you water down and serve in a sippy cup.

Sometimes we release the Wild Hare.

What’s a Wild Hare? It’s the idea that scares you. The one that makes you tilt your head and say, “Wait, can we even say that?” It’s the oddball visual... the one that drives your legal department to a three-martini lunch. The jolt of weird. The strategic detour that might just get us there faster—because there’s no traffic where no one’s willing to go. A Wild Hare doesn’t ask permission. It kicks the door open, throws its ears back, and drops a near-feral, high-voltage concept right on the table. It might be a strategy that blows up category conventions. It might be a headline you hear once and never forget. That’s where juice is. That’s where things get real. And that’s not just a process thing. It’s a values thing.

We call it Free Thinking for Hire. Free thinking requires guts. It requires people in the room (yes, in a room together) who aren’t afraid to take the long way. It requires clients with a sense of adventure and teams with a high tolerance for moonshots. It’s more than our tagline… it’s also our posture. It’s the foundation of our culture.

At Ostrom Creative, we believe that sometimes a winning idea arrives shaking like a Wild Hare in a lightning storm. If it’s any good, you’ll know it—because you’ll feel something… something other than safe.

— Tom Ostrom
Free thinking for hire™